Infusing startup enthusiasm into every endeavor

Do good by doing: This is the philosophy Michael Oved, a graduating senior, claims he has embraced during his time at Harvard College.

An economics and history major passionate about entrepreneurship and Republican politics, Oved asserts he employs an economics mindset for projects, whether they are academic or extracurricular. At College, this meant discerning an unfulfilled requirement and subsequently developing something new to meet that requirement and unite individuals.

“Everything I’ve undertaken at Harvard revolves around action,” stated Oved, who was raised in New York City and attended a Jewish high school in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Following a summer internship at a startup in Barcelona, Oved aimed to replicate that same startup energy at Harvard and among other college students in Boston. As a member of the Harvard Venture Capital Club, he envisioned an entrepreneurship summit where budding VCs could interact and learn from industry experts. Since such an event did not exist, Oved decided to take the initiative. Skeptics deemed it too ambitious and expensive to execute, he noted, but the conference quickly sold out and has continued for the past three years.

“I’m passionate about creating, I’m passionate about action, and that’s what the venture capital group represented,” he remarked. “It was about me leveraging my position as a sophomore at Harvard, an 18-year-old who felt like everything was within reach. How can I utilize that sensation?”

Oved brought that same fervor and determination to the Harvard Republican Club, another organization he joined as a freshman eager to explore all that the College had to offer.

“I want everyone to enjoy what I’ve experienced here.”

For some time, Oved kept his political opinions private. However, during “Ec10,” a survey course with over 500 students led by Harvard economists Jason Furman and David Laibson, he began voicing his thoughts in class. People began to take note.

“I think others realized that I was posing questions from a distinctly Republican viewpoint. I had numerous individuals approach me on the street, literally, telling me, ‘Michael, thank you for posing that question. I had the same inquiry,’” he explained.

Furman, who advised Oved on his senior thesis, described him as “as intelligent as he is charming,” noting his distinctiveness in class through his “willingness to entertain differing viewpoints.”

Even though the number of Republican-leaning students on campus was perceived to be small, Oved felt there was a “thirst” for community, yet no platform for them to gather and exchange opinions. “And so, I thought, how can we create something to satisfy that need?”

By late 2023, as president of the Harvard Republican Club, Oved expanded the mailing list to 850 members and invited prominent speakers such as tech investor Peter Thiel and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ’76, who is now the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

His aim was to bring the club from the outskirts of campus social life to its core. He achieved this when the club issued its enthusiastic endorsement of the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, in August 2024.

This decision attracted significant national attention to the club. Shortly after Trump’s victory, Oved wrote an article in The Harvard Crimson titled “Being Republican at Harvard Has Never Been Better,” addressing the necessity for students of diverse ideological backgrounds to interact in real life, rather than debate online. However, not all of the attention was welcome.

“It was an exceedingly challenging period for me after the endorsement,” Oved reflects today. Although he anticipated some backlash for the decision, the harsh criticism from strangers, especially online, was “challenging to bear.”

Nevertheless, that experience has not diminished his passion for being audacious and creating new initiatives. Drawing on his religious upbringing and family principles regarding the significance of giving back, last year Oved initiated the podcast “30 Years in 30 Minutes,” where guests impart life lessons from crucial moments in their journeys.

“How can I present world-class speakers, whom only those connected to Harvard could access, to the everyday individual?” he pondered regarding the podcast’s inception. “I want everyone to experience what I’ve experienced here.”